1. Field of the Invention PA1 (a) a hub including a tubular body and a radial flange formed around an outer peripheral surface of said hub body and having opposite radial faces; PA1 (b) a separate rim including an annular body disposed coaxially with said hub body and a radial flange formed around an inner peripheral surface of said rim body and having opposite radial faces, said hub flange and said rim flange being mated together at their one radial faces, PA1 (c) fastening means releasably connecting said hub flange and said rim flange together to fix said rim with respect to said hub; and PA1 (d) a projection means provided on said hub flange and extending generally radially outwardly of that portion of the inner peripheral surface of said rim body disposed adjacent to the other radial face of said rim flange, the distance between a radial outer end of said projection means and the one radial face of said hub flange being less than the distance between the other radial face of said rim flange and an axial outer end of said that portion remote from the other radial face of said rim flange.
This invention relates to a wheel assembly for vehicles which comprises a hub and a separate rim joined to the hub by fastening means such as a bolt-and-nut arrangement.
2. Prior Art
FIG. 1 shows one conventional wheel assembly 10 of the type described above which comprises a hub 12 including a tubular body 12a and a radial flange 14 formed around the outer peripheral surface of the hub body 12a, and a rim 16 including an annular body 16a disposed coaxially with the hub body 12a and a radial flange 18 formed around the inner peripheral surface of the rim body 16a. The hub 12 is adapted to be fitted on an axle of the vehicle such as a motorcycle through a pair of bearings 13 and 13, and a tire 17 is adapted to be fitted in the rim body 16a. The hub flange 14 and the rim flange 18 are mated with each other at their one radial faces and joined together by a plurality of pairs of bolts 20 and nuts 22 to fix the rim 16 with respect to the hub 12. The rim 16 is composed of two parts welded together. The rim body 16a has a central portion 16b of a reduced diameter where the rim flange 18 is disposed. The outer diameter of the hub flange 14 is slightly less than the inner diameter of the central portion 16b of the rim body 16a. For assembling the wheel assembly 10, the hub 12 is inserted into the rim 16 from a left-hand side thereof (FIG. 1) until the hub flange 14 is brought into contact with the rim flange 18. Since the outer diameter of the hub flange 14 is slightly less than the inner diameter of the reduced diameter portion 16b, it is possible that the hub 12 is inadvertently inserted into the rim 16 from a right-hand side thereof (FIG. 1) until the hub flange 14 is brought into engagement with the rim flange 18, as shown in FIG. 2. Thus, the hub 12 and the rim 14 can be fixed with respect to each other in a reverse manner. Therefore, each time the wheel assembly 10 is assembled, extreme care must be exerted so that the wheel assembly 10 may not be assembled reversely. Thus, the assembling of the wheel assembly 10 can not be carried out efficiently. The problem of this reverse assembling is undesirable particularly where the tire 17 has a directionality because the performance of the tire 17 is not fully achieved during use in the event of such reverse assembling. Also, in the case where the wheel assembly 10 is designed to be mounted on a motorcycle with a median plane C1 thereof being offset from a median plane C2 of the motorcycle body in a left-hand direction (FIG. 1), the median plane C1 is offset from the median plane C2 in the opposite direction, that is, in a right-hand direction (FIG. 2) if the reversely-assembled wheel assembly 10 is mounted on the motorcycle. This is apparently undesirable.